> Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 13:25:31 -0700
> From: webmaster@... (Drug Sense)
> Subject: DrugSense Weekly, June 8, 2007, #502
>
>
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>
> DRUGSENSE WEEKLY
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> DrugSense Weekly, June 8, 2007
> #502
>
> Read This Publication On-line at:
> http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm
>
> ------------------
>
> TABLE OF CONTENTS:
>
> * This Just In
>
> (1) Is One Of Them High?
> (2) Four More Years For Heroin Centre Trial
> (3) O'Reilly's Got His Shorts In A Knot
> (4) Democrats To Press Uribe On Aid Package
>
> * Weekly News in Review
>
> Drug Policy-
>
> (5) Needle Funding Ban May Soon End
> (6) Some Offended, Some Are For It
> (7) Column: Criminally Offensive
> (8) Focus on the Family Enters CWA Fray
> (9) OPED: The Problem Isn't Yearbooks It's Drug
> Use
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons-
>
> (10) California Prisons Bursting at Seams,
> Inmates Live in Hallways, Gyms
> (11) Police Believe 2 Homicides Related to Drug
> War
> (12) Prescott Valley Mayor Announces New
> Narcotics Unit
> (13) Indicted Detective Admits To Drug Use,
> Retires
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
>
> (14) Medical Marijuana Bill In Rell's Hand
> (15) Medical Marijuana User, 66, Accused Of
> Dealing
> (16) Mendocino: Legalize Pot
> (17) Medical Marijuana Petition Approved
> (18) Alaska Researchers Map Marijuana To Its
> Source
>
> International News-
>
> (19) Missing Teen's Mom Stopped At Border
> (20) U.S. Detects More Coca Being Grown
> (21) Let's Buy Afghanistan's Poppies
> (22) 'Jail Should Be Kept For Long-Term, Serious
> Criminals'
>
> * Hot Off The 'Net
>
> 2006 Coca Estimates For Colombia
> Lies, Damned Lies, And Drug War Statistics
> Cultural Baggage Radio Show
> Report Of The Independent Working Group On Drug
> Consumption Rooms
> Peaking On The Prairies / By Jake Macdonald
> Cannabinoid Chronicles
> Americans For Safe Access Monthly Activist
> Newsletter
>
> * What You Can Do This Week
>
> Let Public Health Officials Save Lives
> Plan For The 2007 DPA Conference in New Orleans
>
> * Letter Of The Week
>
> Still Losing War On Drugs / Lee Franke
>
> * Feature Article
>
> Collateral Collection / By Mary Jane Borden
>
> * Quote of the Week
>
> DrugSense needs your support to continue this
> newsletter and many
> other important projects - see how you can help at
> http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> THIS JUST IN
>
=======================================================================
>
> (1) IS ONE OF THEM HIGH?
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 07 Jun 2007
> Source: Daily Times-Call, The (Longmont, CO)
> Copyright: 2007, The Daily Times-Call
> Author: Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
>
> Once a year or so, Roy Tialavea is summoned
> from his classes at
> Oceanside, Calif., High School to report to the
> athletic director's
> office bathroom. He receives a urine specimen
> cup and heads for a
> stall.
>
> Tialavea is unruffled. Random drug testing has
> been going on for two
> years at the school. He's used to it. "I don't
> use drugs so I don't
> have to worry about getting caught," he says.
>
> His mother, Robyn, thinks her son steers clear of
> drugs and alcohol.
> But, she says, no parent can know for sure what a
> teenager is up to.
>
> "If he doesn't like testing, I really don't care,"
> she says. "I think
> it's a wonderful tool. It creates the fear that they
> could be tested."
>
> Call it the latest version of "just say no."
>
> Concerned with high rates of adolescent substance
> abuse, hundreds of
> middle schools and high schools nationwide have
> begun testing some or
> all students for drugs -- to the dismay of some
> health and addiction
> experts.
>
> Although less than 5 percent of all high schools
> have such programs,
> testing is common in schools throughout Texas,
> Florida, Kentucky and
> parts of California. Nationwide, as many as
> 1,000 schools have
> established programs, according to the White House
> Office of National
> Drug Control Policy.
>
> The number of schools administering drug tests is
> expected to grow.
> Federal funding for school drug testing increased
> 400 percent between
> 2003 and 2006. The Bush administration spent
> $8.6 million on such
> programs last year and has requested $17.9
> million for fiscal year
> 2008.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n692.a08.html
>
> ===
>
> (2) FOUR MORE YEARS FOR HEROIN CENTRE TRIAL
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 08 Jun 2007
> Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
> Copyright: 2007 The Sydney Morning Herald
> Author: Andrew Clennell, State Political Editor
>
> THE heroin-injecting centre in Kings Cross will be
> allowed to remain
> open for four more years - but may be shut
> down if client visits
> decline by more than a quarter.
>
> The Health Minister, Reba Meagher, told Parliament
> yesterday she would
> introduce legislation to extend the trial of the
> centre until October
> 2011.
>
> It is the third extension for the trial - two of
> those extensions have
> come shortly after an election win. The injecting
> centre was set up by
> the former premier, Bob Carr, in 2001 in an
> attempt to halt drug use
> in public places and stop deaths by overdose.
>
> Ms Meagher later said the centre could not be made
> permanent because
> she received legal advice that if it was not
> regarded as a part-time
> medical trial, it could be challenged in the
> High Court using two
> United Nations anti-drug conventions that
> Australia had signed.
>
> "We have sought legal advice from numerous
> sources, mostly from the
> Crown Solicitor's [office]," Ms Meagher said.
> "It [extending the
> trial] is the safest way to continue the
> operation of the centre
> without exposing ourselves to perhaps quite
> costly and lengthy
> litigation."
>
> Ms Meagher's proposal passed through cabinet
> without opposition
> yesterday but three MPs - the member for
> Blacktown, Paul Gibson, the
> member for Mount Druitt, Richard Amery, and Greg
> Donnelly in the upper
> house - expressed reservations in caucus.
>
> In particular, the MPs questioned if the centre was
> working when only
> 11 per cent of people attending were being
> referred for drug
> treatment.
>
> However, caucus passed the proposal, meaning Labor
> MPs will not have a
> conscience vote on the legislation, virtually
> assuring its passage
> through both houses of parliament.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n691.a03.html
>
> ===
>
> (3) O'REILLY'S GOT HIS SHORTS IN A KNOT
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 07 Jun 2007
> Source: Boulder Weekly (CO)
> Copyright: 2007 Boulder Weekly
> Column: The Danish Plan
> Author: Paul Danish
>
> For a guy who's running a no-spin zone, Bill
> O'Reilly has managed to
> get his shorts twisted into quite a knot over a
> Conference on World
> Affairs panel on sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll - as
> have 10 Republican
> members of the Colorado Legislature.
>
> OK, I'm making up the part about rock 'n' roll.
> The actual title of
> the panel discussion, which took place at Boulder
> High School on April
> 10, was "STDs: Sex, Teens and Drugs."
>
> At least one student who was forced to attend was
> outraged. When word
> of her outrage reached New York two months later
> (evidently
> communications between fly-over America and
> Manhattan are a bit slower
> than we've been led to believe), O'Reilly was
> outraged. A couple days
> later, when word that O'Reilly was outraged
> reached the Colorado
> Legislature (evidently news travels faster east to
> west than west to
> east), the 10 Republican members were outraged.
> Outrage, like sexually
> transmitted diseases, is contagious.
>
> Anyway, O'Reilly is carrying on about how the road
> to ruination runs
> through Boulder High School, and the Republican amen
> chorus is howling
> for someone's job - presumably someone involved
> in setting up the
> panel or, failing that, anyone who wasn't
> sufficiently outraged.
>
> Both O'Reilly and the 10 Republicans are
> showboating. The actual
> comments of the panelists (as excerpted in the
> Camera last Saturday)
> are pretty sensible advice - certainly more
> sensible than what teens
> could expect to hear from O'Reilly's side of
> the culture wars.
>
> Consider a few examples:
>
> Panelist Sanho Tree, who is the director of the Drug
> Policy Project at
> the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, told
> the audience that
> "drugs make you feel good. That's the reason
> people take drugs."
>
> Yuh think?
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n691.a05.html
>
> ===
>
> (4) DEMOCRATS TO PRESS URIBE ON AID PACKAGE
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 07 Jun 2007
> Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
> Copyright: 2007 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
> Division, Hearst Newspaper
> Author: Patty Reinert, and John Otis, HC Washington
> Bureau
>
> With Signs That His Country Is Losing Its War On
> Drugs, Democrats Plan
> To Shift Aid Away From Military And Toward
> Humanitarian Programs
>
> WASHINGTON -- President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia,
> in Washington yet
> again to lobby for trade and aid, will be
> greeted by Democrats
> planning a dramatic change in U.S. support for
> the South American
> nation -- away from military and anti-drug
> efforts and toward
> development and human rights projects.
>
> Earlier this week, a House Appropriations
> subcommittee drafting the
> foreign aid budget cut Colombia's overall aid
> package by 10 percent,
> from $590 million to about $530 million.
>
> (The country is expected to get an additional $150
> million in purely
> military and police assistance through a separate
> appropriation in the
> defense budget bill.)
>
> The biggest change, however, is that now that
> Democrats control
> Congress, they intend to alter the ratio
> between military and
> humanitarian foreign aid to the country.
>
> Instead of allocating close to 80 percent to the
> Colombian military
> and drug-eradication programs, as has been the
> case for the past
> decade, lawmakers are proposing that only 65
> percent of the total aid
> package go to the military, with the remaining 35
> percent designated
> as economic and humanitarian aid.
>
> The shift is due in part to mounting evidence that
> Colombia is losing
> its war on drugs, and in part to growing concern on
> Capitol Hill that
> Uribe's government might be tainted by ties to
> paramilitary death
> squads.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n688.a07.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW
>
=======================================================================
>
> Domestic News- Policy
> ----------------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (5-9)
>
> Once again, a new congress is seen as an
> opportunity for common sense
> drug reform. But will the federal ban on using
> Washington, D.C. tax
> money for needle exchanges finally be lifted?
> Before it happens,
> some schools may seem more like surveillance
> centers. One
> Chicago-area private school is ready to drug test
> all its students.
> Some people outside of Colorado seem quite
> upset by a high school
> presentation there on sex and drugs; most
> locals themselves don't
> seem too troubled. And one Colorado commentator
> gets it: it's not
> just discussing or portraying drugs that is the
> problem.
>
> ===
>
> (5) NEEDLE FUNDING BAN MAY SOON END
>
> Pubdate: Tue, 05 Jun 2007
> Source: Washington Post (DC)
> Copyright: 2007 The Washington Post Company
> Author: Susan Levine, Washington Post Staff Writer
>
> Shift in Congress Stirs Hope Among D.C. AIDS
> Officials
>
> Nearly a decade after it was first imposed, a
> unique congressional
> ban limiting the District's effort to fight AIDS
> could be lifted and
> the city again allowed to use local tax dollars
> for needle-exchange
> programs.
>
> The ban's changed prospects owe to the changed
> balance of power on
> Capitol Hill, particularly in the House of
> Representatives, which
> has attached the prohibition year after year to
> legislation
> governing the District's budget. With Democrats
> now in control and
> support growing to give the city a vote in
> Congress and greater
> autonomy generally, health advocates are
> optimistic that the
> restriction could be history by fall.
>
> "The moment may have come. The stars may have
> aligned," said Walter
> Smith, executive director of the nonprofit DC
> Appleseed Center for
> Law and Justice.
>
> The District has among the worst rates of
> HIV-AIDS infection in the
> country -- with intravenous drug users accounting
> for about
> one-third of new AIDS cases annually. But it
> is the only city
> prohibited from spending its own funds to provide
> clean syringes to
> addicts. "There is a connection between those
> two facts," Smith
> said, "and it is time to uncouple it."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n682/a08.html
>
> ===
>
> (6) SOME OFFENDED, SOME ARE FOR IT
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 30 May 2007
> Source: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)
> Copyright: 2007 Daily Herald
> Author: Kiran Sood
>
> The rumors began to circulate around St. Viator
> High School around
> spring break -- that all students would be
> required to submit to
> drug testing next fall.
>
> Initially, the reaction among the student body was
> largely negative,
> a group of juniors at the Arlington Heights school
> said Tuesday, the
> day the new policy was formally announced.
>
> "I thought it was kind of a personal invasion
> of privacy," said
> junior Cara Condon, who was interviewed along
> with her peers with a
> school official present. "I was definitely
> initially surprised, and
> I didn't think that was an action the school would
> take."
>
> Condon, of Itasca, said she was also originally
> "offended" at the
> idea of being tested. And she still has
> issues with it -- even
> though she, like the other students interviewed
> Tuesday, said they
> weren't personally worried about passing the test.
>
> "It is not the responsibility of the school to
> take a drug test,"
> she said. "It should be the responsibility of
> parents if they want
> to know that information about their kids."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n661/a07.html
>
> ===
>
> (7) COLUMN: CRIMINALLY OFFENSIVE
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 31 May 2007
> Source: Boulder Weekly (CO)
> Copyright: 2007 Boulder Weekly
> Author: Wayne Laugesen
>
> If District Attorney Mary Lacey wants to help
> children, she'll bring
> felony charges against psychologist Joel Becker
> and haul him back to
> Boulder.
>
> I told Becker Tuesday it appears he violated
> Colorado law in April
> by contributing to the delinquency of minors. I
> asked him if there
> was any reason he shouldn't be charged,
> considering the fact he
> encouraged hundreds of kids to use drugs -
> advice some of them
> certainly followed.
>
> Becker: "One: My words were taken out of context.
> Two: I didn't mean
> to disrespect or offend anyone. And three: I
> think young people
> deserve open and honest information."
>
> Me: "That's great, Dr. Becker, but why shouldn't you
> face criminal
> charges for contributing to the delinquency of
> minors? You said,
> 'use drugs.' "
>
> Becker refused to answer and recited again his
> song and dance about
> out-of-context remarks.
>
> Becker was on a four-member panel that spoke to
> Boulder High School
> students in April. Here, in unaltered context,
> are his introductory
> remarks:
>
> "Hi. My name is Joel Becker, and I'm a clinical
> psychologist. I'm
> going to ducktail off a little bit of what Andee
> said, but I think
> I'm going to go in a little bit of a different
> direction, because
> I'm going to encourage you to have sex, and I'm
> going to encourage
> you to use drugs appropriately ( resounding
> applause from kids ).
> And why I'm going to take that position is
> because you're going to
> do it anyway. So, my approach to this is to
> be realistic, and I
> think as a psychologist and a health educator,
> it's more important
> to educate you in a direction that you might
> actually stick to."
>
> It's a slam-dunk, Ms. Lacey. Colorado law
> says any person "who
> induces, aids or encourages a child to violate
> any federal or state
> law, municipal or county ordinance, or court
> order" commits a
> felony.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n665/a15.html
>
> ===
>
> (8) FOCUS ON THE FAMILY ENTERS CWA FRAY
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 02 Jun 2007
> Source: Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)
> Copyright: 2007 The Daily Camera.
> Author: Christine Reid
>
> Attorneys Consider Whether CWA Discussion Broke Law
>
> Focus on the Family attorneys are researching
> state law to see if
> there could be a criminal case against
> Conference on World Affairs
> panelists involved in a discussion about sex and
> drugs with teens at
> Boulder High.
>
> Gary Schneeberger, spokesman for the Colorado
> Springs-based
> Christian organization, said his group is looking
> into the
> "contributing to the delinquency of a minor"
> statute.
>
> "We just ask the question, 'If someone
> encourages students to take
> drugs, could that be viewed as encouraging
> them to violate state
> law?' " he said.
>
> The April discussion, "STDs: Sex, Teens and
> Drugs," has drawn
> criticism from at least one student and observers
> including Fox News
> television host Bill O'Reilly for what they say was
> a talk
> encouraging teens to take drugs and have sex.
>
> Conference on World Affairs and Boulder Valley
> school officials have
> defended the panel.
>
> Focus on the Family has not yet contacted
> Boulder County District
> Attorney Mary Lacy with its concerns, and she did
> not return a call
> from the Camera.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues: URL:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n676/a01.html
>
> ===
>
> (9) OPED: THE PROBLEM ISN'T YEARBOOKS; IT'S DRUG USE
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 30 May 2007
> Source: Canyon Courier (CO)
> Copyright: 2007 Evergreen Newspapers, Inc.
> Author: Brad Bradberry
>
> By now everyone has heard about the brouhaha
> over the Conifer High
> School yearbook and the pages that depict students
> using alcohol and
> illegal drugs. Some parents are up in arms, even
> going so far to as
> to demand the resignation of Amy McTague, an
> English teacher and
> yearbook adviser.
>
> Those parents need to calm down and hear what
> principal Pat Termin
> said in a High Timber Times article. After
> admitting that the
> material was indefensible and should not have
> been included in the
> year book, she asked: "When are we going to
> leave the yearbook
> behind and go to the conversations that really
> need to happen about
> helping more kids make better choices?"
>
> A study done several years ago showed that
> 25 to 28 percent of
> 10th-graders at Conifer used marijuana and/or
> alcohol. For
> upperclassmen, I wouldn't be surprised to find
> that figure to be
> higher, nor would I be surprised to find far
> higher levels of drug
> use in other schools.
>
> To my way of thinking, the students who
> produced the yearbook and
> those who were quoted about the use of drugs
> and alcohol didn't
> think twice about the matter. That alone speaks
> volumes about the
> use of drugs and alcohol in Conifer High School,
> and I can tell you,
> that fine school is not the exception. It is the
> rule.
>
> The fact that kids are using dangerous drugs
> like alcohol and
> cigarettes is of far more concern than a few kids
> depicting it in a
> yearbook.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n675/a05.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons
> -------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (10-13)
>
> Finally, a hard look inside the California prison
> system from a big
> newspaper - though it isn't an American
> newspaper. Despite the
> overcrowding crisis in the state's prisons, the
> illegal drug trade
> is as lively and vicious as ever; police say it
> has led to a string
> of homicides in and around San Francisco. But
> some other leaders
> still don't get it, insisting more
> enforcement will stop the
> problem, despite another sign that drug law
> enforcement creates more
> police corruption.
>
> ===
>
> (10) CALIFORNIA PRISONS BURSTING AT SEAMS, INMATES
> LIVE IN HALLWAYS,
> GYMS
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 04 Jun 2007
> Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
> Copyright: 2007 The Ottawa Citizen
> Author: Sheldon Alberts, Ottawa Citizen
>
> Criminologists Say the State's Plan to Ship 8,000
> Prisoners
> Elsewhere Will Not Solve the Problem, Writes
> Sheldon Alberts.
>
> SANTA BARBARA, California - As she navigates
> the labyrinthine
> corridors of the jail where she has worked for 18
> years, corrections
> officer Nancy Tracy pauses at each cell block
> to ask inmates a
> question that rarely brings a happy response:
> How many beds are
> crowded into their confined space?
>
> "Twenty," one prisoner barks in response, "and
> they're all full."
>
> Ms. Tracy just nods and continues her daily rounds.
>
> Set back in the sun-seared hills overlooking the
> Pacific Ocean, the
> Santa Barbara County Jail has the scrubbed
> look of a place where
> prisoners might be able to do easy time -- but
> the picture-postcard
> exterior belies a much tougher reality inside.
>
> Every night at this 1970s-era facility, as many
> as a dozen inmates
> sleep on the floor for lack of space. Some
> prisoners, lucky enough
> to have a bed, lie on bunks stacked three high.
>
> And every morning, by court order, guards unlock
> the jail's gates to
> release prisoners into the community because there
> is simply no room
> for them behind bars.
>
> "When I got hired, I understood my job was
> to take people who
> committed crimes and keep them in jail," says Ms.
> Tracy, the custody
> operations manager. "Now, a lot of my time is
> spent trying to figure
> out how to get them out."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues: URL:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n680/a01.html
>
> ===
>
> (11) POLICE BELIEVE 2 HOMICIDES RELATED TO DRUG WAR
>
> Pubdate: Tue, 05 Jun 2007
> Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.
> Author: Jaxon Van Derbeken
>
> Weekend Killings Reflect Tenderloin, Soma Turf
> Battle
>
> San Francisco police believe that two weekend
> homicides were part of
> a war between drug dealers from Oakland and
> Richmond over turf in
> the city's Tenderloin and South of Market areas.
>
> On Monday, police released a still photo of a
> masked man they say
> committed the execution-style slaying on Market
> Street early Sunday
> of Ernest Johnson, 29, of Oakland. Johnson, they
> say, had a history
> of drug trafficking in Alameda and Contra Costa
> counties.
>
> Johnson was gunned down inside a doughnut shop
> at 995 Market St.
> just after 1 a.m. in a killing that was captured
> on videotape. The
> police asked Monday for the public's help in
> the case and in
> identifying the masked man shown on the tape.
>
> "The Tenderloin and Market Street area is a
> new hotbed of drug
> dealing," said Lt. John Murphy of the homicide
> detail. He said he
> has spoken to investigators in police gang and
> narcotics units about
> the spike in violence brought on by dealers
> and customers from
> outside the city.
>
> "They say there is some kind of war going on in
> that area because
> there is so much money to be made down there,"
> Murphy said.
>
> So far this year, there have been 42 homicides in
> San Francisco. Of
> them, 15 are considered drug-related, two more
> than all of the
> drug-related homicides last year, when there
> was a total of 34
> slayings at this point.
>
> Of the drug-related attacks in 2007, five have been
> in the
> Tenderloin.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n684/a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (12) PRESCOTT VALLEY MAYOR ANNOUNCES NEW NARCOTICS
> UNIT
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 30 May 2007
> Source: Daily Courier (Prescott, AZ)
> Copyright: 2007 Prescott Newspapers, Inc.
> Author: Ken Hedler
>
> PRESCOTT VALLEY - Declaring a war on
> methamphetamine and other
> drugs, Mayor Harvey Skoog on Tuesday discussed
> the formation of a
> two-person narcotics enforcement team in the
> Prescott Valley Police
> Department.
>
> "Our goal is to get drug dealers out of town,"
> Skoog said during a
> 20-minute press conference. He noted Prescott
> Valley police made 711
> narcotics arrests in 2006.
>
> However, Skoog downplayed a proposal that he
> listed in a memo dated
> May 21: The creation of a tent city to house
> people convicted of
> drug and alcohol offenses.
>
> Acknowledging that Yavapai County jails in
> Prescott and the Verde
> Valley have an ample number of beds, Skoog
> said the proposal The
> Daily Courier reported Monday was merely a
> suggestion.
>
> Instead, Skoog used the press conference to
> promote the narcotics
> unit, which is due to start July 1. The Town
> Council voted this past
> Thursday to approve a $111.5 million tentative
> budget for 2007-08
> that would pay for the two officers, used
> vehicles and other
> equipment.
>
> Police Chief Dan Schatz, who did not attend the
> press conference,
> requested $153,820 in the 2007-08 budget, which
> starts July 1, for
> the narcotics unit. Schatz previously stated
> that the short-term
> goal of the unit is to increase drug arrests by 30
> percent.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n662/a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (13) INDICTED DETECTIVE ADMITS TO DRUG USE, RETIRES
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 31 May 2007
> Source: New Mexican, The (Santa Fe, NM)
> Copyright: 2007 The Santa Fe New Mexican
> Author: Jason Auslander, The New Mexican
>
> Santa Fe Police Department: Danny Ramirez, a
> 19-Year Veteran of the
> Force, Tests Positive for Cocaine
>
> A former Santa Fe narcotics detective under
> federal indictment for
> money laundering and other charges is addicted
> to cocaine and in
> need of drug treatment, according to court
> documents.
>
> Danny Ramirez, 47, tested positive for cocaine
> May 16 during a drug
> screening by the U.S. District Court's Pre-Trial
> Services Division,
> according to a motion filed Tuesday by
> prosecutor Reeve Swainston.
> Ramirez, who was arrested on the federal
> charges while at work at
> the police department May 10, admitted to using
> cocaine and said he
> needed help dealing with his drug problem,
> the motion states.
>
> "Defendant's addiction is especially evident by
> virtue of the fact
> that he tested positive for cocaine use, knowing
> that he was subject
> to random drug testing," Swainston wrote in the
> motion. Ramirez also
> might have an alcohol-abuse problem, the motion
> states.
>
> Meanwhile, Police Chief Eric Johnson said
> Wednesday that Ramirez, a
> 19-year veteran of the police department, retired
> May 18.
>
> Johnson said the department conducts random
> drug tests of its
> officers. However, he said federal laws
> prohibited him from saying
> whether Ramirez ever failed a drug test.
>
> "( The cocaine allegations ) came as a total
> shock to me," said
> Johnson, who worked with Ramirez for nearly 20
> years. "It's
> something that was totally unexpected."
>
> The motion was filed in response to another
> motion written by
> Ramirez's lawyer asking that Ramirez be taken
> off electronic
> monitoring and home confinement. The reasons
> to release him from
> house arrest included his being a model
> employee of the police
> department; living in Santa Fe his entire life;
> having no criminal
> history and no history of drug or alcohol
> abuse; and not being a
> danger to the community, the motion says.
>
> In a search of Ramirez's home after he was
> arrested, FBI agents
> found 6 ounces of marijuana with a Department of
> Public Safety Crime
> Lab evidence tag on it plus a smaller amount
> of marijuana and
> several marijuana smoking pipes. According to
> the motion filed by
> Ramirez's lawyer, Jason Bowles, Ramirez was
> convicted of DWI in
> 1992.
>
> Bowles did not return a phone call seeking
> comment Wednesday.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n663/a05.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (14-18)
>
> As this is being written, Governor Rell has
> not acted and reform
> organizations are asking that Connecticut
> folks contact the
> governor's office. From Spokane comes another
> story about the lack
> of justice, or even common sense, in the war on
> drugs. In November
> of 2000 Mendocino County voters approved
> Measure G by 58% - this
> week the county finally met one of the
> requirements of the measure.
> In Michigan it is full speed ahead for signature
> gatherers. Finally,
> from a small Alaska weekly comes an in depth
> article with photos
> about tests that can locate where in the world
> samples of marijuana
> are grown.
>
> ===
>
> (14) MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL IN RELL'S HAND
>
> Source: Journal-Inquirer (Manchester, CT)
> Pubdate: Mon, 04 Jun 2007
> Copyright: 2007 Journal-Inquirer
> Author: Keith M. Phaneuf, Journal Inquirer
>
> HARTFORD - For the last five years, state Rep.
> Penny Bacchiochi,
> R-Somers, and legislative allies from both
> parties have fought to
> legalize marijuana use for medicinal purposes.
> Though they have had
> more success this year than any prior, the
> controversial bill's fate
> now rests solely with Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who
> admits she struggles
> with mixed feelings about the measure. The bill,
> which cleared the
> House 89-58 on May 23, was approved 23-13 in the
> Senate late Friday
> night.
>
> [snip]
>
> The legislation on Rell's desk would allow a
> doctor to certify that
> an adult patient has a debilitating condition
> that could benefit
> from using marijuana.
>
> Patients and their caregivers then would have to
> register with the
> Department of Consumer Protection. Afterward,
> they could cultivate
> up to four plants, none of which could exceed
> 4 feet in height.
>
> [snip]
>
> Rell told Capitol reporters two weeks ago that
> she is torn. On one
> hand, she said, when a loved one is
> suffering, "you would do
> anything in your power to alleviate that pain."
>
> But the governor also said she understands those who
> fear
> legalization would send a dangerous message -
> especially to youth -
> that drug use, in general, isn't dangerous. The
> bill would have been
> better, Rell said, had it been limited only
> to terminally ill
> patients.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n681/a06.html
>
> ===
>
> (15) MEDICAL MARIJUANA USER, 66, ACCUSED OF DEALING
>
> Source: Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
> Pubdate: Tue, 05 Jun 2007
> Copyright: 2007 The Spokesman-Review
> Author: Thomas Clouse, Staff writer
>
> Meet Christine Rose Baggett, a 66-year-old
> great-grandmother who was
> formally charged Monday as a drug dealer in a
> county with a backlog
> of narcotics cases.
>
> Baggett, a widow with no criminal record, suffers
> from two kinds of
> arthritis, two herniated discs in her back and a
> broken ankle that
> hasn't healed properly, she and her attorney said.
>
> Her sight is failing and she has a laundry list
> of other ailments
> for which she walks with a cane and uses
> marijuana for relief.
>
> "I just feel terrible when I take prescription
> medications," Baggett
> said. "I don't think I'm out to hurt anybody
> or have a big grow
> operation. I'm just out to ease my pain. That's
> what the whole deal
> is."
>
> [snip]
>
> What the court record shows is that Baggett
> admitted purchasing an
> ounce of marijuana from a man on Aug. 23 for $180.
> But she gave some
> of it back to him "as payment for delivering the
> marijuana to her."
>
> [snip]
>
> At the hearing Monday, Dougherty asked Price
> to force Baggett to
> undergo drug testing before her trial, which is
> scheduled for Aug.
> 20.
>
> "The state believes monitoring is appropriate,"
> Dougherty said. "The
> state believes that using marijuana is illegal."
>
> Cikutovich told Price that his client does
> not intend to stop
> smoking marijuana. "I just don't want it to be a
> shock to the court
> in a week when we are back in here."
>
> "It won't be a shock," Price replied. "I can
> guarantee you that."
>
> Afterward, Cikutovich told Baggett what to expect.
>
> "If you were my grandma," he told Baggett, "I
> would say use whatever
> medication you need and I will fight for you
> until my dying day.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n683/a03.html
>
> ===
>
> (16) MENDOCINO: LEGALIZE POT
>
> Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)
> Pubdate: Wed, 06 Jun 2007
> Copyright: 2007 The Press Democrat
> Author: Glenda Anderson, The Press Democrat
>
> Mendocino County supervisors said Tuesday the
> war on marijuana is
> lost and it's time to legalize, regulate and tax the
> multibillion-dollar illicit crop.
>
> "Whether you love marijuana or hate marijuana,
> you can agree it's
> time for a change," said Supervisor John
> Pinches, part of a 4-1
> board vote in support of a letter asking state and
> federal lawmakers
> to legalize marijuana.
>
> The letter, penned by Pinches, is addressed to North
> Coast
> Congressman Mike Thompson and copied to the
> governor, both
> California senators, other area representatives
> and President Bush.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n687/a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (17) MEDICAL MARIJUANA PETITION APPROVED
>
> Source: Lansing State Journal (MI)
> Pubdate: Thu, 07 Jun 2007
> Copyright: 2007 The Associated Press
>
> An effort to legalize marijuana for medical use
> in Michigan cleared
> a key procedural hurdle Wednesday.
>
> A state elections board approved the form of
> petitions being
> circulated by the Michigan Coalition for
> Compassionate Care.
>
> The group still needs to collect at least
> 304,101 valid signatures
> of Michigan voters within six months to send
> its issue to state
> lawmakers.
>
> If state lawmakers vote to accept the proposal,
> it becomes part of
> Michigan law. If the Legislature doesn't vote
> on the measure or
> rejects it, the initiative would appear on the
> November 2008 ballot.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n689/a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (18) ALASKA RESEARCHERS MAP MARIJUANA TO ITS SOURCE
>
> Source: Anchorage Press (AK)
> Pubdate: Thu, 07 Jun 2007
> Copyright: 2007 Anchorage Publishing, Inc.
> Author: Casey Grove
>
> [snip]
>
> What Alaska law enforcement hasn't had --
> until now -- was a
> quantitative way of telling how much of the
> state's pot was grown
> here and how much was grown Outside. Nor could
> they pinpoint the
> geographic area in which a particular bag of
> pot was from. Now,
> researchers and police at the University of
> Alaska Fairbanks might
> have a way to find out exactly where in the
> world those buds grew.
>
> Inside the lab at the Alaska Stable Isotope
> Facility in the Water
> and Environmental Research Center at UAF,
> bulky gray boxes with
> digital displays are connected to each other with
> venting ducts and
> bundles of wires that run up to the ceiling.
> A radio set to a
> classic rock station is playing somewhere. It's
> an attempt to mask
> the whirring, clicking and popping of the
> spectrometers and all the
> noise created by their peripheral devices. They
> also have the radio
> on "to keep the instruments happy," says Dr.
> Matthew Wooller, an
> associate professor at the university and one
> of the marijuana
> study's principal investigators.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n691/a04.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> International News
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (19-22)
>
> It looks as if the U.S. "Homeland" security
> efforts are paying off,
> you know: preventing terrorists from entering
> fortress America.
> Indeed, while TB-travelers are given nary a
> nod, alert border
> authorities noticed a mom from British Columbia,
> Canada, traveling
> to meet with investigators in Nevada about her
> daughter, who has
> been missing for over a year there. Glendene
> Grant was told she
> would not be allowed entry into the U.S. (though
> she had traveled to
> and from Las Vegas many times before). Why? A
> "criminal conviction
> for possession of a small amount of marijuana
> from 21 years ago."
> Border officials told her not to bother trying
> again, as she is now
> "flagged". And so America is protected from
> terrorism.
>
> A tiny report in the Los Angeles Times this week
> confirmed the total
> acreage devoted to coca in Colombia rose
> nearly 20% in 2006 over
> 2005, the White House Office of National Drug
> Control Policy (ONDCP)
> admitted. Excusing the absolute failure of Plan
> Colombia evident in
> both the street price of cocaine in the
> U.S., as well as the
> increase of coca planted in Colombia, the ONDCP
> said the increased
> acreage may be because of differing methods of
> estimation, smaller
> coca plots, and "rapid crop reconstitution."
>
> The idea that Afghanistan's opium farmers could
> simply have their
> crop purchased and used for medicines, as is
> done in Turkey and
> elsewhere, is gathering steam as another Canadian
> newspaper endorses
> the plan. "Isn't it just possible," editorialized
> the National Post,
> "that NATO would find it easier to win
> hearts and minds in the
> lawless parts of Afghanistan if farmers there
> knew that NATO
> progress meant a big stake in a legal opium trade
> -- instead of the
> status quo, whereby government busybodies are
> trying to get
> everybody to burn their dollars-a-bushel poppies
> and grow
> pennies-a-bushel onions instead?"
>
> And from Scotland this week, a refreshing look at
> the issue of crime
> and punishment from new justice secretary
> Kenny MacAskill. Jail
> should be for "serious offenders" says
> MacAskill, "not for drink-
> and drug-related offences, those with mental
> health problems,
> first-time offenders and fine-defaulters,"
> reported the Scotsman
> newspaper. Scottish opposition parties were quick
> to find fault with
> MacAskill's plans to jail fewer Scots. Said
> one Tory spokesman,
> "there is nobody who is sent to jail who should
> not be." MacAskill
> also said he wished to prevent private, for-profit
> prison
> corporations from running "any new prisons".
>
> ===
>
> (19) MISSING TEEN'S MOM STOPPED AT BORDER
>
> Source: Kamloops Daily News (CN BC)
> Pubdate: Mon, 04 Jun 2007
> Copyright: 2007 Kamloops Daily News
>
> The Kamloops mother of a teen who vanished in
> Las Vegas 14 months
> ago says she won't let U.S. authorities keep
> her from the work of
> finding her daughter.
>
> Glendene Grant said she was not allowed to enter
> the U.S. this week
> as she tried to board a plane for Las Vegas. Grant
> was bound for the
> Nevada city to meet with investigators and
> others there about the
> disappearance of her daughter Jessie Foster.
>
> While she has been allowed into the U.S. many
> times before, this
> time around border guards pulled her aside
> and told her to turn
> around.
>
> Grant said she has a criminal conviction for
> possession of a small
> amount of marijuana from 21 years ago, and
> wonders if that was the
> reason she was denied entry.
>
> The border authorities told her she would remain
> flagged and further
> attempts to cross into the U.S. would also be
> refused.
>
> [snip]
>
> Upset, Grant said she asked to speak to the
> woman's boss, a request
> that prompted the woman to call security and
> have Grant escorted
> out.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n684.a03.html
>
> ===
>
> (20) U.S. DETECTS MORE COCA BEING GROWN
>
> Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
> Pubdate: Tue, 05 Jun 2007
> Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
>
> Despite widespread spraying of defoliants
> financed by the U.S.,
> total acreage of coca cultivated in Colombia
> rose 19% in 2006
> compared with 2005, according to an annual survey
> by the White House
> Office of National Drug Control Policy.
>
> The report stresses that much of the gain may
> be attributed to an
> expansion of the area included in the survey,
> which is done by
> satellite, airplane and on the ground.
>
> The White House said the increase was due
> partly to "rapid crop
> reconstitution," the use of smaller plots in
> more remote areas and
> farmers' increasing use of national parks, where
> aerial spraying is
> forbidden.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n685.a02.html
>
> ===
>
> (21) LET'S BUY AFGHANISTAN'S POPPIES
>
> Source: National Post (Canada)
> Pubdate: Mon, 04 Jun 2007
> Copyright: 2007 Southam Inc.
>
> At home, the red European wild poppy is a
> symbol of Canada's
> military heritage. But the Canadian soldiers of
> today are trudging
> through fields of opium poppies every day in
> Afghanistan, and for
> them, the potent tall-stalked plant has become a
> contemporary symbol
> of the frustrations of nation-building in a failed
> state.
>
> Illicit poppy production is simultaneously a
> hard-to-replace source
> of income for thousands of small Afghan
> farmers and a valuable
> source of revenue for the enemies of NATO and the
> legitimate Afghan
> government. Over 90% of the world's illegal raw
> opium is thought to
> come from Afghanistan. Ultimately, its
> by-products go on to wreak
> havoc in cities around the world.
>
> Consistent with the thinking that gave us
> Washington's failed "war
> on drugs," the preferred U.S. policy is to
> "eradicate" Afghan poppy
> fields through aerial spraying, which practically
> means driving the
> opium trade underground and hitting the small
> grow-ops hardest.
>
> [snip]
>
> It is an approach guaranteed to fail: Similar
> U.S.-funded
> scorched-earth drug-eradication projects in
> Columbia and other Latin
> American countries have all been complete
> debacles in recent
> decades.
>
> Given this, it's worth taking a look at a
> course of action being
> promoted in Canada by the Senlis Council, a
> liberal-minded,
> self-described "international drug policy
> think-tank." In recent
> years, its members' close attention to
> Afghanistan's drug trade has
> encouraged them to speak out on broader issues
> concerning the war
> there.
>
> [snip]
>
> The basic idea is simple: Opium is medicine, so
> why destroy it? In
> an age of rising global prosperity and life
> expectancies, the
> medical demand for opioids such as codeine and
> morphine is rising
> all the time, and indeed is outstripping
> supply according to UN
> measures. Yet there are no legal arrangements for
> Afghan farmers to
> produce licensed opium legally for the
> international pharmaceutical
> market.
>
> Nothing in international, Afghan or Islamic law
> stands in the way,
> and a similar program of pharmacization has already
> brought
> thousands of Turkish farmers in from the
> black market. The only
> thing missing in Afghanistan is the bridge
> between lawful authority
> and the areas in which poppies are now being
> grown illegally --
> which is to say, the problem is that the war
> hasn't yet been won.
>
> That's hardly a trivial hurdle to overcome, but
> there is a
> chicken-and-egg dynamic here: Isn't it just
> possible that NATO would
> find it easier to win hearts and minds in
> the lawless parts of
> Afghanistan if farmers there knew that NATO
> progress meant a big
> stake in a legal opium trade -- instead of the
> status quo, whereby
> government busybodies are trying to get
> everybody to burn their
> dollars-a-bushel poppies and grow
> pennies-a-bushel onions instead?
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n680.a09.html
>
> ===
>
> (22) 'JAIL SHOULD BE KEPT FOR LONG-TERM, SERIOUS
> CRIMINALS'
>
> Source: Scotsman (UK)
> Pubdate: Thu, 07 Jun 2007
> Copyright: 2007 The Scotsman Publications Ltd
> Author: Hamish MacDonell
>
> THOUSANDS of criminals, including thieves,
> housebreakers, vandals
> and fine-defaulters, will be spared prison
> sentences under radical
> plans announced yesterday by the new Scottish
> Executive.
>
> Kenny MacAskill, the justice secretary, said he
> wanted to adopt a
> more liberal approach to penal policy.
>
> Prison, he said, should be reserved for "serious
> offenders", not the
> "flotsam and jetsam" of society that, he
> claimed, was clogging up
> the nation's prisons unnecessarily. Of the
> 7,000 prisoners in
> Scotland today, most are in jail for
> sentences of six months or
> less.
>
> Mr MacAskill believes many of these criminals
> should be serving
> community sentences instead, leaving prison for
> long-term, serious
> criminals.
>
> He said he was really concerned with those
> imprisoned for drink- and
> drug-related offences, those with mental health
> problems, first-time
> offenders and fine-defaulters.
>
> [snip]
>
> He confirmed, as expected, that he did not want
> private companies
> running prisons in Scotland but said this
> would apply to "new"
> prisons, leaving the future of Kilmarnock,
> Scotland's only private
> jail, unclear.
>
> [snip]
>
> "We will detain the dangerous but treat the
> troubled,"
> he said.
>
> On drugs, he said: "We must stop the situation
> where young people -
> whether because of low self esteem or lack of
> opportunity - shoot up
> and opt out."
>
> [snip]
>
> He said: "We need a coherent penal policy.
> Prison should be for
> serious and dangerous offenders, not
> fine-defaulters or the flotsam
> and jetsam of our communities.
>
> "So we need to shift the balance, with less
> serious offenders
> currently cluttering our prisons sentenced to
> community
> punishments."
>
> [snip]
>
> Bill Aitken, for the Tories, said: "Frankly,
> there is nobody who is
> sent to jail who should not be sent to jail.
> This is not done on a
> whim. Sentencing is a matter for judges who
> act in the public
> interest.
>
> [snip]
>
> KEEP PRISONS PUBLIC
>
> THE minister said he wanted to stop private
> companies from running
> any new prisons in Scotland.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n690.a10.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> HOT OFF THE 'NET
> -------------------------------
>
> 2006 COCA ESTIMATES FOR COLOMBIA
>
> The results of the 2006 U.S. Government survey
> of cultivation in
> Colombia indicate that statistically there was no
> change in the amount
> of coca being grown between 2005 and 2006. The
> 2006 coca cultivation
> estimate is subject to a 90 percent confidence
> interval of between
> 125,800 and 179,500 hectares. The 90 percent
> confidence interval for
> the 2005 estimate was between 127,800 and
> 160,800 hectares. The
> significant overlap between the two years'
> estimates means that it is
> not possible to infer year-to-year trend
> information.
>
> http://www.ondcp.gov/news/press07/060407.html
>
> ===
>
> LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND DRUG WAR STATISTICS
>
> A Critical Analysis of Claims Made by the Office
> of National Drug
> Control Policy
>
> Book Forum, Thursday, May 31, 2007, 12:00 PM
>
> Featuring the authors: Matthew B. Robinson,
> Associate Professor of
> Criminal Justice, Appalachian State University and
> Renee G. Scherlen,
> Associate Professor of Political Science,
> Appalachian State
> University; with comments by Dr. David Murray,
> Senior Policy Analyst,
> Office of National Drug Control Policy; moderated
> by Timothy Lynch,
> Director, Project on Criminal Justice, Cato
> Institute.
>
> http://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=3807
>
> ===
>
> CULTURAL BAGGAGE RADIO SHOW
>
> Tonight: 06/08/07 - Richard Traylor "pissed off"
> over faulty piss
> tests.
>
> Listen Live Fridays 8:00 PM, ET, 7:00 CT,
> 6:00 MT & 5:00 PT at
> http://www.kpft.org/
>
> Last: 06/01/07 - Ed Rosenthal and medical marijuana
> persecuted.
>
> Audio:
> http://drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/FDBCB_060107.mp3
>
> ===
>
> THE REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT WORKING GROUP ON DRUG
> CONSUMPTION ROOMS
>
> A detailed examination of whether Drug
> Consumption Rooms (DCRs)
> should be introduced in the UK.
>
> http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/details.asp?pubID=785
>
> ===
>
> PEAKING ON THE PRAIRIES
>
> Long before touching down in San Francisco, LSD was
> primed to become
> a psychiatric wonder drug in Saskatoon
>
> By Jake MacDonald
>
> http://tinyurl.com/yso6up
>
> ===
>
> CANNABANOID CHRONICLES
>
> June 2007, Volume 4, Issue 9
>
> http://thevics.com/publications/vol4/VICSNews4_9.pdf
>
> ===
>
> AMERICANS FOR SAFE ACCESS MONTHLY ACTIVIST
> NEWSLETTER
>
> June 2007, Volume 2, Issue 6
>
> http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=4719
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> LET PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS SAVE LIVES
>
> A DrugSense Focus Alert
>
> http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0347.html
>
> ===
>
> PLAN FOR THE 2007 DPA CONFERENCE IN NEW ORLEANS
>
> http://kessjones.com/conf07/
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> LETTER OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> STILL LOSING WAR ON DRUGS
>
> By Lee Franke
>
> Re: "Troopers seized record amount of drugs in '06,"
> Friday news
> story.
>
> Why is this news? Next year, they will seize an
> even larger amount.
> The following year, another record. This will
> continue until the
> U.S. abandons its ill-conceived war on drugs
> and starts treating
> drug use as a public health, not a criminal, issue.
>
> Did it do any good? Did it cause enough of a
> supply shortage to
> drive up the price? Any impact? Not really. They
> wasted their time,
> effort and safety chasing the jack-a-lope of a
> drug-free America.
>
> If you think the war on drugs will succeed, you
> do not understand
> how capitalism works or believe in a free society.
>
> Lee Franke, Frisco
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 04 Jun 2007
> Author: Lee Franke
> Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> FEATURE ARTICLE
> -------------------------------
>
> COLLATERAL COLLECTION
>
> By Mary Jane Borden
>
> While it is well known that DrugSense
> provides many valuable
> services to the drug policy reform movement,
> organizations might not
> realize that DrugSense maintains links to
> paper-based materials
> belonging to many of their reform friends. We
> also are developing
> quite a collection of our own flyers and brochures.
>
> All of these are available for download and
> use. Some come in the
> form of pre-formatted PDF files. Others
> include Microsoft Word
> documents, videos, MP3 files, and links to
> publications like Drug
> War Facts. We also offer banner graphics for Web
> pages. A number of
> organizations are represented from the large
> and well known MPP,
> NORML, and Drug Policy Alliance, to state-based
> groups like the Ohio
> Patient Network or ReconsiDer from New York.
>
> The place to begin our tour of DrugSense's
> collateral material
> collection is at the DrugSense.org home page.
> From there, several
> links at the left of this page will take you to
> various materials.
>
> Beginning at the top under Who We Are, the
> [Banners] link brings up
> a number of DrugSense/MAP graphics that can be
> placed on Websites.
> Our clients often find the DPC logo at the
> bottom of their pages
> indicating that our Drug Policy Central
> subsidiary is providing
> their Web services.
>
> There is also the popular Media Awareness
> Project banner that is
> often used as a link to our site.
>
> At the bottom of this page also lay two
> DrugSense handouts. The
> four-print-per-flyer "What bothers you the most
> about Prohibition?"
> on the left creates four handy postcard-size
> flyers with both black
> and white and color versions available.
>
> Moving down the Who We Are list on the
> DrugSense.org home page finds
> the very next [Flyers] link referencing
> DrugSense's own growing
> collection of drug-war-related materials. Depending
> on your
> interest, you may find one of these existing
> flyers perfect for your
> meeting or conference. Topics range from the
> exorbitant cost of the
> drug war to a list of conditions shown by
> science to benefit from
> the medicinal use of cannabis.
>
> We also have materials that discuss how to use
> our own services,
> like online help systems and media activism
> resources. A couple of
> brochures or flyers show how to integrate all of
> our offerings into
> one coordinated campaign designed to gain
> media attention and
> exposure for your reform message.
>
> Perhaps of greatest interest to reform
> activists is our Downloads
> page. Here, you can access the collateral
> material of many reform
> organizations.
>
> The search box at the very top of the page
> allows you to look for
> printed materials by subject matter. Say you
> need a pamphlet about
> marijuana. Simply type "marijuana" in the box,
> and a list of
> downloadable materials concerning cannabis will
> appear.
>
> The Drug Reform Organization Downloads section
> appearing below the
> search box contains links to over 70 pieces
> from over 20 reform
> organizations. Materials range from LEAP videos,
> to Spanish language
> pamphlets from ReconsiDer, to public service ads
> from Common Sense
> for Drug Policy.
>
> The best part is that you can add your
> organization's materials to
> this site. The Add Download link below the
> Search Box accesses a
> form, which you can fill out to both add your
> group to the list and
> upload your document. To do so, please remember to
> register with the
> DrugSense.org site first.
>
> Printed brochures, PDF reports, and online video
> all help get reform
> information to new audiences. When reform
> organizations share what
> they have, the collection of information available
> to end
> prohibition multiplies benefiting everyone.
>
> DrugSense Flyers & Brochures What Bothers You Most
> about
> Prohibition? A 4-print-per-flyer sheet that
> creates postcard- size
> handouts in both black and white and color.
> (http://mapinc.org/map4up.pdf)
>
> Your Tax Dollars At Work A PDF listing of drug
> war costs as gleaned
> from clippings in MAP's DrugNews archive.
> (http://www.drugsense.org/flyers/taxatwork.pdf)
>
> Cannabis Studies by Condition A PDF of
> studies in the DrugNews
> Archive concerning medicinal cannabis ordered by
> physical condition.
> (http://drugsense.org/flyers/cannabisstudies.pdf)
>
> Making the Most of DrugSense
> A PDF of tips on how to make the best use of
> DrugSense/MAP services.
> http://www.drugsense.org/flyers/DSServicesFlyer.pdf
>
> DrugSense How-2 Brochure Help A PDF of a
> two-color brochure on the
> various help topics found on DrugSense/MAP Web
> pages.
>
>
http://drugsense.org/html/docs/DS-MAP_Make_a_Difference.pdf
>
>
> Other Flyers & Brochures Other DrugSense
> flyers can be found at
>
(http://www.drugsense.org/html/modules.php?name=Downloads)
>
> Mary Jane Borden is a writer, artist, and
> activist in drug policy
> from Westerville, Ohio. She serves as Business
> Manager/Fundraising
> Specialist for DrugSense.
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> QUOTE OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> "Nobody makes a greater mistake then he who does
> nothing because he
> could only do a little." - Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> DS Weekly is one of the many free educational
> services DrugSense
> offers our members. Watch this feature to
> learn more about what
> DrugSense can do for you.
>
> TO SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL
> ADDRESS:
>
> Please utilize the following URLs
>
> http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm
>
> http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm
>
> CREDITS:
>
> Policy and Law Enforcement/Prison content
> selection and analysis by
> Stephen Young (steve@...), Cannabis/Hemp
> content selection
> and analysis by Richard Lake
> (rlake@...), International
> content selection and analysis by Doug Snead
> (doug@...),
> This Just In selection, Hot Off The Net selection
> and Layout by Matt
> Elrod (webmaster@...). Analysis
> comments represent the
> personal views of editors, not necessarily the
> views of DrugSense.
>
> We wish to thank all our contributors, editors,
> NewsHawks and letter
> writing activists. Please help us help reform.
> Become a NewsHawk See
> http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm for info on
> contributing clippings.
>
> ===
>
> NOTICE:
>
> In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section
> 107, this material is
> distributed without profit to those who have
> expressed a prior
> interest in receiving the included information
> for research and
> educational purposes.
>
> ===
>
> MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION TO DRUGSENSE ON-LINE
>
> http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
>
> -OR-
>
> Mail in your contribution. Make checks payable to
> MAP Inc. send your
> contribution to:
>
> The Media Awareness Project (MAP) Inc.
> D/B/a DrugSense
> 14252 Culver Drive #328
> Irvine, CA, 92604-0326
> (800) 266 5759
> MGreer@...



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